onsists of a few huts
built on the top of a mass of stone, round the base of which are also
habitations, but the riches of the people are always kept above. The
Tuaricks annually, and sometimes oftener, pay them a most destructive
visit, carrying off cattle and every thing they can lay their hands
upon. The people, on those occasions, take refuge at the top of the
rock, ascending by a rude ladder, which is drawn up after them; and
as the sides of their citadel are always precipitous, they defend
themselves with their missiles, and by rolling down stones on the
assailants.

The sultan Tibboo, whose territory extends from this place to Bilma,
was at this time visiting a town to the south-west of Anay, called
Kisbee, and he requested Boo Khaloom to halt there one day, promising
to proceed with him to Bilma. They accordingly reached Kisbee on the
evening of the 5th, where the camels got some pickings of dry grass.

Kisbee is a great place of rendezvous for all kafilas and merchants,
and it is here that the sultan always takes his tribute for
permission to pass through his country. The sultan himself had
neither much majesty nor cleanliness of appearance; he came to Boo
Khaloom's tent, accompanied by six or seven Tibboos, some of them
really hideous. They take a quantity of snuff, both in their mouths
and noses; their teeth were of a deep yellow; the nose resembles
nothing so much as a round lump of flesh stuck on the face, and the
nostrils are so large, that their fingers go up as far as they can
reach, in order to ensure the snuff an admission into the head. The
watch, compass, and musical snuff-box of one of the party created but
little astonishment; they looked at their own faces in the bright
covers, and were most stupidly inattentive to what would have excited
the wonder of almost any imagination, however savage. Here was "the
_os sublime,_" but the "_spiritus intus,_" the "_mens divinior,_"
were scarcely discoverable. Boo Khaloom gave the sultan a fine
scarlet bornouse, which seemed a little to animate his stupid
features.

In the evening, they had a dance by Tibboo men, performed in front of
their tents. It is graceful and slow, but not so well adapted to the
male as the female. It was succeeded by one performed by some free
slaves from Soudan, who were living with the Tibboos, enjoying, as
they said, their liberty. It appeared to be most violent exertion;
one man is placed in the middle of a circle, which he end